Looks better now (I especially like the sting animation). Small suggestion, though: in the fifth frame of the sting, I think it would be good to have a bit of dripping poison in the place where the swish effect in the fourth frame ended.

Wow, I didn't even know that these were a thing! Logged back in for the first time in ages for this. I really like the young sprites, and I actually strongly approve of the differences in coloring between designs- it makes the upgrading feel less like 'it's the same design just slightly bigger'. In fact, with so many size variants, a lv1-lv2-lv3 upgrade line with the lv3 scorpion in like a dark crimson color scheme would be entirely plausible!

If I have a strength or skill, writing descriptions isn't it, but maybe something like this could work:

The spawn of the Giant Scorpion quickly reach the size of a small wolf, and can be troublesome to travelers even in the juvenile state. They will continue to to grow in size and strength as they mature.

When it comes to resistances for the Giant Scorpion, I...honestly think it ought to have the exact same movetype and resistances as the Rami, except a higher weakness to Fire and a higher resistance to Impact. And for descriptions, I wrote one a while back, but I can do some here:

Young Scorpion:

The most potent venom known to society is that of the monstrous scorpions of the frontier. Fetching a high price by assassins and apothecaries alike, this venom is often seen as a quick way to make coin, and bold hunters often venture into the wilderness to harvest it. However, even in a juvenile state, these scorpions can deliver deadly stings, and are faster than most men, quickly turning the hunter into the hunted. What's worse is that these beasts can live in rather large nests, and angering a seemingly lone scorpion can lead to swarms of them crawling up from the ground - perhaps one of the most terrifying sights imaginable.

Giant Scorpion

If the scorching heat, lack of water, and blinding sands aren't enough to deter voyagers from the desert, these enormous scorpions might make them think twice. Easily the most unsettling threat to inhabitants of arid lands, the giant scorpions are simply some of the most fearsome wild creatures in the world. With the speed and size of a horse, and a thickly armored carapace, giant scorpions hunt by skewering prey with their crippling venom, maiming them with their powerful pincers, and relentlessly pursuing until their targets fall. One of these can doom an unprepared campsite - a swarm of them can utterly devastate a village more than any sandstorm can.

Gyra_Solune wrote:When it comes to resistances for the Giant Scorpion, I...honestly think it ought to have the exact same movetype and resistances as the Rami, except a higher weakness to Fire and a higher resistance to Impact. And for descriptions, I wrote one a while back, but I can do some here:

I like the sound of that movetype, and I like the descriptions more! A quick suggestion, however:

The young scorpion description sounds fine, but I see a couple issues with the other one. It's written well, but I don't think it should focus on arid lands because Wesnoth scorpions tend show up in swamps and forests as well. Also, scorpions aren't relentless-pursuer types, but sudden-ambush types.

I like Gyra_Solune's elaboration on the venom, that's a nice little bit of world-building to include. I tried to make a few improvements:

"One of the most potent known venoms is that of the monstrous scorpions of the frontier. Fetching a high price by assassins and apothecaries alike, this venom is often seen as a quick way to make coin, alluring bold hunters to venture into the wilderness to harvest it. However, even in a juvenile state, these scorpions can deliver deadly stings and are faster than most men. What's worse is that these beasts can live in rather large nests, and angering a seemingly lone scorpion can lead to swarms of them crawling up from the ground — quickly turning the hunter into the hunted."

Okay, so Giant Scorpling is now in. I changed the name because apparently scorpling is a real word, and "Young Scorpion" just didn't sound as nice to me. And yes, I already fixed the wrong unit id/name in that commit. The stats are pretty basic extrapolations from the Giant Scorpion.

Regarding the scorpion's stats, I just want to suggest that having a weakness to fire isn't really the same as being unable to stand heat, and even if it were, living in the desert doesn't necessarily mean something can withstand the full force of the desert's heat.

Also, not all scorpions live in the desert, right? I'm pretty sure there are scorpions in the Amazon jungle?

I'd also point out that radically changing the scorpion stats would screw up some UMC. I recall one of Sky-One's popular campaigns (sorry I don't remember which one) would be next-to-impossible without the scorpion's weakness to fire. There are probably other UMC offerings that use scorpions as well, and we shouldn't assume they will be updated quickly. This may not be a default era MP unit, but default era MP isn't everything. If it should be changed, let's not do it in BfW 1.13/1.14, but save it for BfW 1.15?

doofus-e01 wrote:I trimmed down the scorpion a bit more (still may be too subtle), and have a level 0 young scorpion. I'm consider this Phen24 young scorpion actually may be the right size for the level 1, and the level zero needs to be even smaller. I'm posting the sprites, such as they are, in case anyone is interested in tweaking these.

I love the look of these scorpions.

Last edited by ShaneMar on January 20th, 2018, 7:44 am, edited 2 times in total.

If we're talking about monsters here and if there's nothing else to say about the young scorpions, I think the fire wisp from Invasion From the Unknown and After the Storm by Shadowm is also a great-great unit and it's almost in mainline style!

I'm trying to get animations for the scorpion (#2266), sometimes I think the attack animations look OK for north-facing conditions, sometimes I'm not so sure. If it does really need separate north-facing attack frames, it needs a NE-facing base first. Is this good enough?